UFC Fight Night 44 Predictions

I’m looking forward to the UFC Fight Night 44 card much more than the earlier event on Saturday. UFC Fight Night 44 will be taking place in San Antonio, Texas with the first fight starting at 7:30PM ET. Tune in Fox Sports 1 to watch the fights on Saturday night.

UFC Fight Night 44 Best Bets

Kelvin Gastelum (8-0) is now 3-0 in the UFC with impressive wins over Hall and Story. Nicholas Musoke (12-2) is 2-0 in the UFC, but he hasn’t fought a ranked fighter yet and is simply outmatched here. I just hope Gastelum looks for the finish in this one.

Gastelum should have success taking down Musoke the entire fight and I expect him to lock in a submission or early TKO/KO. This is a weird match-up as Gastelum is a much better fighter and I feel the UFC is looking to build up his image with an easy fight.

The odds have been creeping up since opening, but at –186 I still recommend betting on Ricardo Lamas (13-3). Lamas lost to Aldo in his last fight, but prior to that he was 4-0 in the UFC. Hacran Dias (21-2-1) is 1-1 in the UFC after losing to Lentz last time out.

Lamas is simply better in just about every category compared to Dias. Lamas is more experienced and if he wants another title shot he can’t afford losing to fighters like Hacran. Dias doesn’t have the power to surprise Lamas either, so jump on the favorite.

Andrew Craig (9-2) and Cezar Ferreira (7-3) both need a win after being stopped in their last fight. Craig lost to Barnett (Sub) while Ferreira lost to Dollaway (KO). I think this fight is extremely close and could see either fighter winning, but I do like it ending ITD.

Craig has some power in his punches and Ferreira was just knocked out in his last fight, which was his 2nd TKO/KO loss. Ferreira is capable of finishing a fight with his submission game as well. I expect both fighters to go for broke and one will be stopped early.

I feel we’re getting a decent price on Cub Swanson (20-5) because he hasn’t fought in almost a year and he’s coming off of elbow surgery, which will scare away some handicappers. However, Swanson should be too much to handle for Jeremy Stephens (23-9).

Stephens has won three in a row since moving to featherweight, but Swanson is a top contender in the division. Both fighters are powerful, so Swanson will have to respect that. However, I feel that Swanson is going to be the aggressor and outpoint Stephens.

I was going to add a couple other fighters to this parlay, but I decided against it, as I’ve been getting burned lately by getting too greedy with my parlays. At nearly 2/1 odds I’m hammering this parlay and will be personally betting 3 units on it on Saturday.